Posts Tagged ‘eastern Jerusalem’

Arabs have raised a new claim on “Arab Susiya,” located in the southern Hebron Hills, based on an alleged 1881 document from the time of the Ottoman Empire.

The tiny area of Susiya, as The JewishPress.com reported here last week, has become a critical case that could determine the future of the Palestinian Authority and Israel. The IDF has issued orders to destroy several European Union and leftist-funded tents and structures on “Arab Susiya.” If the Palestinian Authority wins an appeal against the orders, it would pave the way for Arabs to dig up claims on every inch of land in Israel.

Israel aerial photos and academic researcher have refuted previous claims that Arabs lived on Susiya in recent years, Haaretz reported on Sunday that an Arab lawyer has dug up an Ottoman-Empire-era document in the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, that the “Jabri” family had a deed for “land near Susiya” in 1881.

Even if the claim were valid, it does not mean that Arabs can build without permits, but it would allow them to use the land for agriculture.

Haaretz noted that previous deeds from a century ago are problematic because they do not clearly define land boundaries.

The claim of a document from 1881 is strange because the Jabri family was one of the heads of the city of Hebron, 12 miles away by road. Susiya was not exactly Boardwalk on the Hebron land board; it was not even on the board at all.

The southern Hebron Hills is a barren mountain desert area. A family in Hebron would have no apparent reason to buy or lease land in Susiya.

But if the deed really is true, it exposes the Palestinian Authority as claiming that history begins only when Arabs settle land.

If Arabs wants to start digging into history before the re-establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, then all recorded documents have to be honored.

For example, using 1881 as a starting point, there are dozens of recorded land purchases by Jews of land in such places as Gaza, Gush Etzion and the Silwan Valley in “eastern Jerusalem.”

If Arabs want to use historical land deeds as a basis for claims, and since they accept the Five Books of Moses as a prelude to the Prophet Mohammed, then there is no argument that Abraham bought the Patriarchs’ Cave in Hebron, King David, Jacob (Yaakov) bought Shechem (Nablus) and King David bought Jerusalem.

Islam began in the 7th century, hundreds of years after Jews settled the country.

The Palestinian Authority wants it both ways. If it can find a document that Arabs paid taxes on land or even owned it, it claims that is proof the land is theirs.

The Jerusalem Arab terrorist who ran over two police officers and tried to kill them is the cousin of the driver who carried out the massacre of eight Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva students in Jerusalem in 2008, according to Arab media.

Wednesday’s hit-and-run terrorist was identified as Amran Omar abu Dahim, 42, from the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood located between the Talpiot and A-Tur neighborhoods in southeastern Jerusalem.

He is the cousin of Ala abu Dahim, who drove his vehicle in 2008 to the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem, entered the building with a violin case and then pulled out a rifle and gunned down yeshiva students,.

The massacre shocked the world, even the bleeding-heart liberals since it occurred at a widely-known yeshiva that is located less than a mile from the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem.

Today’s terrorist hit three police officers, two of whom were evacuated to Jerusalem hospitals for treatment of moderate and light injuries.

Arabs claimed that it was an accident and that police executed an innocent man.

The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed on Thursday that has taken as hostage an Arab youth from eastern Jerusalem who sent to Syria by the Mossad, Channel 2 television reported late Thursday afternoon.

The Israeli government has not responded, but the Mossad rarely comments on reports.

ISIS identified the hostage in its English magazine as Mohammed Sayid Ismail, whom it said was drafted by a Jewish police officer who was his neighbor.

The ISIS publication showed a picture of Ismail and quoted him as saying that the Mossad was paying him approximately $1,200 a month. He also allegedly said he was trained for one month, a very short period and which makes the ISIS report doubtful.

However, although the story sounds surreal, several Israeli Arabs have been known to arrive in Syria to fight for ISIS or other jihadist armies, and the ISIS may be using an Israeli Arab as a tool for propaganda or may have actually captured one who was fighting with another group.

Jerusalem’s planning committee has approved the construction of 243 new residential units in Ramot, a large neighborhood on the western side of city that international media have now officially termed a ”settlement.”

Most of Ramot is on public land that was occupied by Jordan from the end of the War for Independence until the Six-Day War in 1967. It was developed in the late 1970s and almost never has been lumped in with similar areas in eastern, southern and northern Jerusalem.

The planning committee also approved another bureaucratic stage for building 270 homes in the same area.

Reuters reported, “Israel describes both settlements as Jerusalem “neighborhoods” and added that Palestinian Authority fears that the “Israeli enclaves will deny them contiguous territory” in a future state.

According to Reuters, Israel cites “biblical links” to justify the right to of Jew to anywhere in Jerusalem.

As much as the biblical links are true, as they are true for the entire existence of the State of Israel, Jerusalem built up Ramot because the city needed to expand and because a strong Jewish presence is Israel’s best security against more Arab wars.

Anticipating criticism from the United States, which backs the Arab world stand to shrink Israel back to the 1949 Armistice Lines, the Jerusalem committee stated:

There is no change in the policy of the municipality in recent years and we will continue to build in all neighborhoods of the city, for Jews and Arabs alike, according to the master plan. In the coming years, it is expected tens of thousands of housing units will be built in all sectors of the city.

New construction in Jerusalem is essential for the city’s development and for allowing young people and students to live here and buy an apartment.

Jerusalem city councilor Yosef Pepe Alalu, of the left-wing Meretz party, told AFP, “This kind of decision distances us from any chance of reaching an agreement with the Palestinians.”

While Reuters reported that Israel ”captured” Judea and Samaria and what is now Greater Jerusalem, AFP went one step further from the truth and told readers it “seized” eastern Jerusalem.